Thomas van Boeckel

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH) in Zürich

I am a spatial epidemiologist interested in infectious diseases of animals and humans. I use mathematical models that combine epidemiological surveillance data with large-scale geographic databases and remote sensored images to understand the spatio-temporal distribution of diseases of global impact. My main area of research is in understanding the effect of agriculture intensification on the geographic distribution of zoonoses and antibiotic resistance. The goal of my work is to develop tools to support evidence-based policies that optimally deploy the resources available to address these public health challenges while insuring farmers' livelihood around the globe.

I completed my PhD at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in 2013 where I worked at the Biological Control and Spatial Ecology Lab under the mentorship of Dr Marius Gilbert. In 2009, I started my PhD as a visitor at the Department of Zoology of the University of Oxford where I worked under the supervision of Prof Peter Gething as part of the Malaria Atlas Project. From 2011 to 2013, I was also a regular collaborator of Dr Michael Tildesley at the Warwick Mathematics Institute. Throughout my PhD I was supported by an aspirant grant from the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) as well as by the the Wiener-Anspach foundation. I originally obtained an MSc in environmental engineering and a BSc in biological engineering from the Free University of Brussels (ULB).